//------------------------------// // Chapter 13 // Story: Cafe Dazzling // by brzy //------------------------------// The Rainbooms and the Dazzlings sat in the music room across from one another. Dash glared daggers at Aria. “You. Fucking. Bitch. You knew!” Aria couldn’t help the shit eating grin that spread on her face. “Yeah. Me and Twilight hang out all the time. She’s pretty cool, unlike your spaz horse princess.” Rainbow Dash nearly lost it but Sunset grabbed her shoulder. She turned back to the Dazzlings. “Why didn’t you guys give us a heads up?” exclaimed Sunset Shimmer. “I hadn’t realized we were on such friendly terms, Sunny,” said Dagi in a mocking tone. “It almost seemed as if we weren’t even friends at all yesterday!” Her false smile fell and she glared back at the pony girl. “We’ll figure out what’s going on with the riots without your help. Come on girls.” Adagio, Aria, and Sonata stormed out of the music room. Sunset found herself seriously weirded out. What the heck was going on? Why weren’t they all buddy buddy with the Dazzlings? They got zapped by the elements just like she did… Right in the middle of that thought, Twilight walked into the room. She couldn’t help feeling a bit relieved. Twilight was a born leader. She’d know what to do! “hii’mtwilight,” murmured the purple girl under her breath. Wut. “Sorry, what was that?” “mynameistwilight,” she whispered, even quieter. Sunset stared at Twilight. Purple smart withered under her scrutiny. What. The. Fuck? --- The Dazzling’s were back at their restaurant. With the complete lack of any adult supervision or accountability, they all concluded what any rational person would in their position: the Friendship Games were stupid and their time would be better spent getting the café ready for dinner. It was a good thing they did too. The upcoming games had inexplicably drawn a lot of people to their area of Canterlot. This was by far their busiest night. Teachers, students, and parents from Crystal Prep and CHS both found the nearby café wildly convenient. “Holy crap Anon!” shouted Sonata. “We’re gonna make like a bazillion bucks!” She moved from table to table, her infectious smile spreading to everyone around her as she refilled drinks and took orders. Even Aria and Adagio with in great moods. Adagio had shifted over to help Anon in the kitchen, as Aria filled double duty as both hostess and waitress. Dagi smiled as her Lieutenant picked up the slack. She removed a plate from the warmer, adding a side of sautéed green beans with a sprinkle of kosher salt. “Ribeye ready!” shouted Anon, as Adagio swooped in to scoop it onto the plate. She moved over to the partition shouting “order up!” as she moved the ticket to the front of the queue. Aria grabbed a set of plates and headed over to the table where Celestia, Discord, Luna, and Chrysalis were seated. “Here you go! One cheesecake with a side of bacon, a ribeye medium rare, a meatloaf with extra ketchup, and a chicken ceasar salad!” “Thank you my dear! It's absolutely wonderful seeing young people today with such a strong work ethic! Celestia must be very proud to have such an industrious group of students!” crooned Discord, as he spread garlic butter all over his steak. “Indeed I am, Discord. These girls have made a quite impressive turn around in their short time here at Canterlot High!” Celestia winked at her. Aria laughed mechanically and uncomfortably. “We were honestly quite worried they might leave after a certain incident a few weeks ago. We are quite glad they decided to stay.” Luna seemed to smile a genuine smile as she looked the Siren in the eyes. Aria was confused on who the ‘we’ was, as Celestia was completely engrossed in crushing and sprinkling the bacon all over her cheesecake. Chrysalis took a sip of her water after swallowing a bite of her salad. “You are going to need a lot of luck to have any hope of beating our team this year,” she smiled, showing her perfect white canines. “Our girl Twilight is a natural. She’s smart like you wouldn’t believe. Outgoing, tenacious, a gifted athlete, and she’s a born leader.” She paused to take another bite of the chicken and savored the perfectly seasoned grilled flavor. “The food here is quite good. Please compliment the chef for me,” she added, before continuing. Aria nodded as she held the tray to her chest. She had other tables to check, but she really wanted to hear more about Doc. “Well, it’s not like having extraordinary students is out of the norm for Crystal Prep. We do have quite the record of snagging exceptional students. Cadence, Shining Armor, Starswirl, and myself of course. Hmm, where did you go Discord? Honestly, it seems like you’ve been Vice Principal forever!” “Oh, I’m actually a Canterlot High graduate! Go Wondercolts, and all that!” He swabbed the last bit of steak, trying to get every bit of delicious flavor. -- Twilight tripped again as she tried to jump the hay bail. Sunset had a migraine. What the heck? How the heck was Twilight more quiet and uncoordinated than Fluttershy? They had gone to AJ’s farm to hang out and talk. “Whew. Sorry about that. Not really used to all this stuff. Thanks for telling me all about the other me. I thought I was going crazy after that video came out.” “No problem Twilight. I’m glad we finally got to meet you. You, umm, are not quite what we expected,” said Sunset. “It is quite surprising, darling,” crooned Rarity. “You two are so different!” “Well, not so different on the coordination part!” laughed Rainbow Dash. Sunset glared at her. “You guys have helped me out a lot. It answers a lot of questions I had about just what happened here.” Twilight smiled. “In fact, it has given me a few theories to work on as far as my research into “friendship.” Sunset’s eyebrow rose. She could almost swear she heard Twilight add air quotes to friendship. Maybe it was just a speech impediment? It seemed this world’s Twilight was a lot different from hers. She looked around. Her friends seemed to have embraced Twilight, as everyone took the soft spoken girl under their wing, so to speak. There couldn’t be more to it, right? It was Twilight they were talking about here. “Well, I better get home. It’s starting to get dark and I don’t want to be late for dinner!” After saying their goodbyes purple smart headed out to the bus stop at the end of the farm road. Not for the bus, there was actually a black car waiting for her there. Sunset turned to the rest of the mane 6. “So. Thoughts?” “I like her. She’s nice,” said Fluttershy. “She’s an egghead,” added Rainbow Dash. “She had no sense of style. A bun?” replied Rarity. “She really needs to let loose,” shouted Pinky. “Seems like she is a really hard worker on her studies,” replied Apple Jack. “Yeah. I think she needs us,” Sunset Shimmer finally added with a sigh.